Delphi Study to Evaluate Competency Comprehensive Assessment System for Professional Degree of Dentistry.

Objective: In accordance with the two-way integration requirements of Chinese professional degree training and resident standardization training, we have gradually established a competency comprehensive assessment system (CAS) for professional postgraduate education since 2015. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the scientific and practicality of CAS through a Delphi study.

Methods: There were two parts in CAS such as dissertation of clinical study and oral clinical proficiency assessment, which including formative assessment and summative assessment.

Source entropy controlled enumerative sphere shaping for a probabilistic shaping coherent optical transmission system.

We propose a source entropy controlled enumerative sphere shaping (EC-ESS) scheme to address inflexible source entropy control in sphere shaping. The proposed scheme employs a model-driven interval search algorithm to establish the relationship between the source entropy of one-dimensional and two-dimensional symbols. Data analysis indicates that within various ranges of source entropy, the number of achievable source entropies for EC-ESS surpasses that of optimum ESS (OESS).

Enhancing furcation involvement classification on panoramic radiographs with vision transformers.

Background: The severity of furcation involvement (FI) directly affected tooth prognosis and influenced treatment approaches. However, assessing, diagnosing, and treating molars with FI was complicated by anatomical and morphological variations. Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) enhanced diagnostic accuracy for detecting FI and measuring furcation defects.

Evaluation of transfer ensemble learning-based convolutional neural network models for the identification of chronic gingivitis from oral photographs.

Background: To evaluate the performances of several advanced deep convolutional neural network models (AlexNet, VGG, GoogLeNet, ResNet) based on ensemble learning for recognizing chronic gingivitis from screening oral images.

Methods: A total of 683 intraoral clinical images acquired from 134 volunteers were used to construct the database and evaluate the models. Four deep ConvNet models were developed using ensemble learning and outperformed a single model.

Symbiotic Electromagnetic Shadow for Regional Invisibility and Camouflage.

Low detectability and camouflage skills in the electromagnetic wave and light frequency range provide survival advantages for natural creatures and are essential for understanding the operational principles of the biosphere. Taking inspiration from natural mutualistic symbiosis, this paper proposes a symbiotic electromagnetic shadow camouflage mechanism based on a superdispersive surface, aiming to investigate its impact on the observability of specific objects. The design and experimental results indicate that the symbiotic shadow dihedral can significantly reduce overall scattering quantity, which reaches at least 10 dB shrink in the 12-18 GHz frequency range compared to the contrast object.

Joint equalization of RSOP and PMD fused probability-aware with square-root cubature Kalman filter for the PDM PCS-64QAM system under extreme scenarios.

Extreme scenario of lightning strikes would generate ultra-fast rotation of state-of-polarization (RSOP) up to 5.1 Mrad/s and large polarization mode dispersion (PMD) in optical ground wire (OPGW). Unfortunately, the conventional multiple modulus algorithm (MMA) cannot equalize these polarization impairments in polarization division multiplexing (PDM) probabilistic constellation shaping (PCS)-64QAM system.

ZNF862 induces cytostasis and apoptosis via the p21-RB1 and Bcl-xL-Caspase 3 signaling pathways in human gingival fibroblasts.

Objective: This study investigates the effects of ZNF862 on the proliferation and apoptosis of human gingival fibroblasts and their related mechanisms.

Background: As a major transcription factor family, zinc finger proteins (ZFPs) regulate cell differentiation, growth, and apoptosis through their conserved zinc finger motifs, which allow high flexibility and specificity in gene regulation. In our previous study, ZNF862 mutation was associated with hereditary gingival fibromatosis.

Mask refinement network for tooth segmentation on panoramic radiographs.

Objectives: Instance-level tooth segmentation extracts abundant localization and shape information from panoramic radiographs (PRs). The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a mask refinement network that extracts precise tooth edges.

Methods: A public dataset which consists of 543 PRs and 16211 labelled teeth was utilized.

Joint equalization of EEPN, RSOP, and CD with the sliding window assisted extended Kalman filter for a high baud rate Stokes vector direct detection system.

Equalization-enhanced phase noise (EEPN) has emerged as one of the major impairments that cannot be ignored for a high baud rate Stokes vector direct detection (SVDD) system. When EEPN interacts with the rotation of state-of-polarization (RSOP) and chromatic dispersion (CD), the joint impairment effects become even more complicated. To achieve the joint equalization of EEPN, RSOP, and CD impairments of a high baud rate SVDD system, this paper first derives a joint impairment model of these three kinds of impairments, and then proposes a joint equalization scheme of EEPN, RSOP, and CD with a sliding window assisted extended Kalman filter (SWA-EKF).

Porphyromonas gingivalis infection promotes inflammation via inhibition of the AhR signalling pathway in periodontitis.

Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) is a key pathogen of chronic periodontitis. Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) is essential in immune homeostasis via modulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines production and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO).

Blind frequency offset estimation using the optimal decision threshold-assisted QPSK-partition method for probabilistically shaped MQAM systems.

Moderate or strong shaping conditions reduce the occurrence probability of the outermost ring constellation points of probabilistically shaped (PS)-M quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals, which easily causes the peaks in the 4 power periodogram of received signals be submerged, accordingly the classical frequency offset estimation (FOE) scheme using 4 power fast Fourier transform (FFT) cannot be applied in PS-MQAM system. To solve this issue, we have proposed an optimal decision threshold assisted quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK)-partition blind FOE scheme. Firstly, the proposed scheme utilizes an optimal decision threshold assisted method for the symbol decision of received symbols, then chooses the symbols on multiple specific QPSK-shape rings.

Corrigendum: Experimental Periodontitis Deteriorated Atherosclerosis Associated With Trimethylamine N-Oxide Metabolism in Mice.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.

Low-level controllable blue LEDs irradiation enhances human dental pulp stem cells osteogenic differentiation via transient receptor potential vanilloid 1.

Human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) have attracted tremendous attention in tissue regeneration engineering due to their excellent multidirectional differentiation potential. Photobiomodulation (PBM) using low-level light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or lasers has been proved to promote the osteogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells. However, the effect of LEDs on osteogenic differentiation of hDPSCs has little published data.

Transcriptome Analysis of Monocytes and Fibroblasts Provides Insights Into the Molecular Features of Periodontal Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.

Periodontal Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (pEDS) is a rare hereditary disorder characterized by severe early-onset periodontitis with premature tooth loss, pretibial hyperpigmentation, and skin fragility. It is caused by mutant variants in the and genes that result in C4 cleavage and local complement cascade activation, as well as other possible consequences. However, the exact functional consequences of this activation remain unclear.

Joint multi-parameter optical performance monitoring scheme based on trajectory information for a Stokes vector direct detection system.

In this study, we propose and verify a joint multi-parameter optical performance monitoring (OPM) scheme based on trajectory information for the Stokes vector direct detection (SVDD) system, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. Here, the proposed scheme first performs quantification of the trajectory to construct trajectory information, which not only presents diversity of the received symbols in spatial dimension, but also records the jump pattern among symbols in time dimension. Subsequently, eigenanalysis is introduced to extract critical features hidden in trajectory information and simultaneously achieve the purpose of dimensionality reduction.

Th17/Treg balance and indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase activity in periodontitis-associated atherosclerotic patients.

Objective: This study investigated the peripheral Th17/Treg balance and its potential controlling factor indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO) in patients with periodontitis and atherosclerosis (AS), as well as its correlation with infection.

Methods: In this retrospective study, -infected atherosclerotic patients (Pg-AS), atherosclerotic patients (AS), -infected periodontitis patients (Pg), and healthy controls (HCs) were selected after clinical examination, subgingival plaque examination, and plasma anti- antibody analysis. Treg and Th17 cell percentages, related transcription factors, and functional cytokines in peripheral blood were analysed.

A novel gene causes hereditary gingival fibromatosis.

Hereditary gingival fibromatosis (HGF) is the most common genetic form of gingival fibromatosis which is featured as a localized or generalized overgrowth of gingivae. Currently two genes ( and ), as well as four loci (2p22.1, 2p23.

Experimental Periodontitis Deteriorated Atherosclerosis Associated With Trimethylamine N-Oxide Metabolism in Mice.

Background: Periodontitis is considered a risk factor for atherosclerosis, but the mechanism is not clear. It was reported that oral administration of altered the gut microbiota in mice. Gut dysbiosis and the intestinal metabolite trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) were verified to be associated with atherosclerosis.

Transcriptome analysis of Fusobacterium nucleatum reveals differential gene expression patterns in the biofilm versus planktonic cells.

As a chronic infectious disease, periodontitis can cause gum recession, loss of alveolar bone, loosening of teeth, and even loss of teeth. Dental plaque biofilm is the initiating factor for the occurrence and development of periodontitis. Fusobacterium nucleatum (F.

Blind modulation format identification based on improved PSO clustering in a 2D Stokes plane.

Blind modulation format identification (MFI) is indispensable for correct signal demodulation and optical performance monitoring in future elastic optical networks (EON). Existing MFI schemes based on a clustering algorithm in Stokes space have gained good performance, while only limited types of modulation formats could be correctly identified, and the complexities are relatively high. In this work, we have proposed an MFI scheme with a low computational complexity, which combines an improved particle swarm optimization (I-PSO) clustering algorithm with a 2D Stokes plane.

Association Between Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (G-308A) Polymorphism and Chronic Periodontitis, Aggressive Periodontitis, and Peri-implantitis: A Meta-analysis.

Objective: Chronic periodontitis (CP), aggressive periodontitis (AP), and peri-implantitis (PI) are chronic inflammatory diseases. Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-a) is an effective immune inflammatory mediator. Several studies have been conducted to explore the association between the TNF-α (G-308A) polymorphism and susceptibility to CP, AP, and PI.

A deep learning approach to automatic gingivitis screening based on classification and localization in RGB photos.

Routine dental visit is the most common approach to detect the gingivitis. However, such diagnosis can sometimes be unavailable due to the limited medical resources in certain areas and costly for low-income populations. This study proposes to screen the existence of gingivitis and its irritants, i.

Remodeling the periodontitis microenvironment for osteogenesis by using a reactive oxygen species-cleavable nanoplatform.

Modestly removing the excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) plays a crucial role in regulating the microenvironment of periodontitis and provides favorable conditions for osteogenesis. However, the current strategy for scavenging ROS is not controllable, substantially limiting the outcomes in periodontitis. Herein, we introduced a controllable ROS-scavenging nanoplatform by encasing N-acetylcysteine (NAC, (a well-known ROS scavenger) into tailor-made ROS-cleavable amphiphilic polymer nanoparticles (PEG-ss-PCL NPs) as an intracellular delivery carrier.